The Socialist Cause
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Hi Meel,You have a point. The term "working class" does seem a little outdated. In Britain many associate it with cultural stereotypes such as living in a council house/flat, racing pigeons and/or Whippets, growing prize winning leeks, avin a sing song around the old Joanna, fish and chips on a wet weekend holiday in Brighton, working in traditional heavy industry such as coal mining or ship building. But I expect most people who are employed, whether road sweepers or teachers, still know they have to work for a living.There isn't even a standard way of ascertaining what makes a person "middle class". Some think it is the amount of money you are paid for the work you do, others think it is lifestyle/cultural choices.Then there are the intermediate classes, according to some there are, lower working class, working class, upper working class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, lower upper class, upper class and upper, upper class. Absolutely ridiculous.It doesn't matter whether you aspire to be "middle class", if you have to work for a living you certainly aint "upper class" or capitalist class.I tend to use the term "working class" as little as possible and use "middle class" even less. When discussing socialism, I use terms like "majority of the people" or simply "workers" to seperate us from the capitalists. Afterall once socialism is established, we will simply be people of the world.
"We Arra the People""Power to the People" I know at a stretch, people may include our rulers…and worse, some Orange bigots in Northern Ireland and Scotland insist in appropriating the term to prove they are the "chosen people"…I have now got a tendency to say "working people"…but some who don't work may feel that they are excluded by the word's usage…I am uncomfortable with the word proletariat(n) ..i think it is easier describing our enemy..the capitalist…the plutocrat…the oligarch…the ruling class, employing class, employers, the masters, the bosses, the wealthy, the rich, the 1%, the parasite class, these blood-sucking leeches, those fucking bastards……
Socialist Punk"It doesn't matter whether you aspire to be "middle class", if you have to work for a living you certainly aint "upper class" or capitalist class."I know. I know the theory. But if "people out there" identify with a class at all, it's more likely to be with being "middle class" than "working class". The term is just outdated. People connect it with manual workers only. And there are far fewer of them than there used to be."Afterall once socialism is established, we will simply be people of the world."IF, not ONCE, I'm afraid. It's not guaranteed.alanjjohnstone"Working people" is a good term, better than "working class" for propaganda purposes, I think. And I don't think the term "proletariat" should be used at all, it just reminds people of the Soviet Union or the angry young men (mostly) of various left wing groups.Meel
Hi Meel,I did say you have a point, regarding the term "working class". Surely if you can get people to even come close to some agreement with socialist ideas, then they will understand what economic class they belong to?But for propagation purposes, it wouldn't harm to stay away from the "working class" label. Although Alan's "working people" is a wee bit close to the English politicians new patronising catchphrase "hard working people".
Re "hard working people", agreed.
alanjjohnstone wrote:"We Arra the People""Power to the People" I know at a stretch, people may include our rulers…and worse, some Orange bigots in Northern Ireland and Scotland insist in appropriating the term to prove they are the "chosen people"…I have now got a tendency to say "working people"…but some who don't work may feel that they are excluded by the word's usage…I am uncomfortable with the word proletariat(n) ..i think it is easier describing our enemy..the capitalist…the plutocrat…the oligarch…the ruling class, employing class, employers, the masters, the bosses, the wealthy, the rich, the 1%, the parasite class, these blood-sucking leeches, those fucking bastards……Right on!!
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